September 9, 2025, 4:24am

A new season has officially begun: there’s slightly more chill in the air, a bit more yellow in the trees overhead, and a lot more books pouring out every week. The dam has been released. The books we have been waiting for all year, ever since we started anticipating in January, are finally descending.

This includes a new and jaw-dropping Elizabeth Gilbert memoir, a queer, poly love story by Alejandro Varela, and a history of the “World Wide Web” by its very own creator, Tim Berners-Lee. There’s a debut book of poetry by Ricky Delaurentiis, (coming recommended by Ocean Vuong), a novel satirizing masculinity and higher education by Jordan Castro, and a second beguiling novel by Makenna Goodman, author of The Shame. And many, many more.

The three I’m moving to the top of my TBR: Gilbert, Varela, and Goodman. And Mick Herron, if I’m being honest, since I’ve long been grappling with an addiction to Slow Horses. The pile continues to grow, and thank God for it. Happy Tuesday, and happy reading!

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Sarah Moss, Ripeness
(Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)

“Luminous … Moss spins a sense of belonging in the flux of history into a rich and complex matter.”
–Financial Times

Elizabeth Gilbert, All the Way to the River: Love, Loss, and Liberation
(Riverhead)

“Gilbert takes readers to a darker, more complicated space than many of her earlier works. This is a harrowing, vital, and ultimately transcendent exploration of fierce love, codependency, and grief.”
–Shelf Awareness

Alejandro Varela, Middle Spoon
(Viking)

“Explores the beautiful complexity of unorthodox, progressive family dynamics with tenderness and humor in equal measure … A touching yet provocative queer love story about defying societal expectations.”
–Kirkus

Michael Lentz, trans. by Max Lawton, Schattenfroh
(Deep Vellum Publishing)

“I implore you: If you’ve lately felt too occupied with social media, if you’ve worried over the products of AI, or if you just want to deepen the mysteries of existence with an open and patient mind — pick up Schattenfroh and dedicate some time and effort to it. It couldn’t be any further from our current typical modes, but it functions as a refreshing immersion rather than escapism.”
–Washington Post

Samantha Browning Shea, Marrow
(G. P. Putnam’s Sons)

“Marrow is a novel with its own weather, an entrancing and eerie tale of longing, regret, and secrets, with a revelation that continues to haunt me.”
–Megha Majumdar

Zosia Mamet, Does This Make Me Funny?
(Viking)

“Zosia Mamet’s essays are sometimes hilarious and sometimes poignant; often, they are both … She gives us a front-row seat to what it was like to grow up in the entertainment industry, and somehow manages to make this rarefied experience deeply relatable. Ninety-nine percent of girl readers will wince in recognition.”
–Naomi Fry

Mick Herron, Clown Town
(Soho Crime)

“Excellent … Herron’s work now has a huge following and no wonder: He’s a master at mixing byzantine plotting with breathless pacing.”
–Vogue

Harriet Rix, The Genius of Trees: How They Mastered the Elements and Shaped the World
(Crown)

“Non-fiction rarely sees a debut like The Genius of Trees. It is a true masterpiece.”
–The Telegraph

Carla Ciccone, Nowhere Girl: Life as a Member of ADHD’s Lost Generation
(Dial Press)

“A journey through a realm of neurodivergence, which we explore reprehensibly seldom and address—still!—with a negligence that would be astonishing were it not so routine … Truly eye-opening.”
–Anna Mehler Paperny

Lauren Morrow, Little Movements
(Random House)

“Morrow’s debut shines with snappy dialogue, spot-on status details, and lovely writing about dance and creativity.”
–Oprah Daily

Jason Diamond, Kaplan’s Plot
(Flatiron)

“Kaplan’s Plot is something magical—an original, beautifully written and deeply humane novel that is also a page-turner with a powerful ending.”
–Adelle Waldman

Natsuo Kirino, trans. by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda, Swallows
(Knopf)

“A writer in effortless command of her craft, Kirino brilliantly upends our expectations at every twist and turn. Just when you thought things could not get any more complicated, she deftly ups the ante. The resulting tension builds to a startling ending that both disturbs and delights.”
–Julie Otsuka

Rickey Laurentiis, Death of the First Idea: Poems
(Knopf)

“With erudite, vexed, and scintillating syntax, at once archaic and unimaginably futuristic, this long-awaited follow up is an ecstatic and undeniable celebration of language and being. I’m truly in awe. But mostly, I’m grateful to be alive alongside this once-in-a-generation talent, who has given English new angles to live and fight by.”
–Ocean Vuong

Tim Berners-Lee, This is For Everyone: The Unfinished Story of the World Wide Web
(FSG)

“This book is an insightful recounting of the development of the World Wide Web and a profound declaration on how humanity should remain at the center of technology as we move forward in the twenty-first century.”
–Al Gore

John Boyne, The Elements
(Henry Holt & Co)

“One of the most assured novelists of his generation.”
–The Guardian

Ron Rindo, Life and Death and Giants
(St. Martin’s Press)

“Seamlessly blending the fantastical and the real, Rindo’s novel is an elegant testament to how an entire community is touched and transformed by the open heart and generosity of one kind, gentle, extraordinary human being.”
–Booklist

Trymaine Lee, A Thousand Ways to Die: The True Cost of Violence on Black Life in America
(St. Martin’s Press)

“A provocative and informative read that expertly blends memoir with hard-hitting reporting.”
–Kirkus

Kehinde Andrews, Nobody Can Give You Freedom: The Political Life of Malcolm X
(Bold Type Books)

“A bracingly radical and thorough re-examination of Malcolm X.”
–Frankie Boyle

Lacey N. Dunham, The Belles
(Atria)

“Beautifully mines the depths and complexities, the dangers and cruelties, of young womanhood within the confined and explosive space of a 1950’s southern all-girls’ school. Lacey N. Dunham is a writer not only of compelling story but of rich and unforgettable characters, a creeping, immersive setting, and continually stunning sentences.”
–Lynn Steger Strong

P. E. Moskowitz, Breaking Awake: A Reporter’s Search for a New Life, and a New World, Through Drugs
(Atria)

“An unflinching examination of contemporary American culture’s quest for the quick fix to emotional pain and all the terrifying, wondrous possibilities that lie beyond it.”
–Laura Delano

M. L. Rio, Hot Wax
(Simon and Schuster)

“Rio captures the joy and danger of rock ’n’ roll in her raucous latest…Rio keeps the reader guessing—and turning the pages—while shining a light on Suzanne’s emotional scars. This electrifies.”
–Publishers Weekly

Jordan Castro, Muscle Man
(Catapult)

“Castro’s hilarious and astonishing new novel discovers in the insane condition of higher education surprising symptoms of the human condition.”
–Michael Clune

Natalie Shapero, Stay Dead
(Copper Canyon)

“Shapero’s humor generally derives from dark places, as in her tendency toward self-deprecation…and amid unusually lithe movements, Shapero demonstrates an ability to follow observations to unexpected ends.
–Publishers Weekly

Makenna Goodman, Helen of Nowhere
(Coffee House Press)

“Virtuosically written, with an insanity inside its sanity–or the other way around–that seems the proper use to make of reality in this moment.”
–Rachel Cusk